In large scale collating and stuffing machines of the type comprising a series of collating document inserters disposed upon a feed deck, and a stuffer mechanism downstream of the collating document inserters for collectively stuffing the collated documents into an envelope, there often existed a need for inserting a larger document in the form of a folded sheet. Preliminary attempts to marry a folding apparatus to one of the collating inserters on the collating feed deck were not entirely successful. This was because, the folding apparatus was directly chain driven from the inserter apparatus through a series of overlapping chain drives. The folding apparatus was not separately clutched, so that when the inserter apparatus was disengaged from its driven mechanism via its clutch mechanism, the folding apparatus was halted in mid-operation. This had the effect of: (a) causing extreme stress upon the gears and interconnecting drive chain of the folder-inserter combination, which in turn caused the gears and drive train to experience severe wear; and (b) jamming was frequently encountered where a document was mid-way within the folding apparatus during drive train de-energization.
To alleviate the inherent drawbacks of the prior folder and inserter combination, the present invention has dichotomized the drive train, and has introduced individualized energizing and de-energizing feed controls on the folder and inserting mechanisms.